Stoudemire yesterday made a case for sitting out Game 4 because of the pain and not wanting to risk further injury. It was as if he trying to convince himself it was the right thing to do.

If the strained muscle in Stoudemire’s back is no better than it was in Game 3 Friday night or yesterday, when he walked like a 70-year-old man, then it’s time for Stoudemire to shut it down and watch today’s game in street clothes. No shame, no blame.

Stoudemire has played valiantly this season, carrying the team almost alone before Carmelo Anthony arrived.

Sitting out what amounts to the biggest game of the year won’t be an easy call. It goes against every competitive cell in Stoudemire’s body and every emotion every Knicks fan will carry into Game 4. But if Stoudemire is no better than he was Friday night when he scored just seven points on 2-of-8 shooting in 33 minutes, then it’s best the Knicks proceed without him.

Stoudemire said repeatedly yesterday his injury needs three weeks of rest of heal.

“I was trying to rush back in three days, so you can imagine what type of pain I was in,” he said. It was pain that lasted “the whole game, from start to finish.” He said he felt worse yesterday.

Any notion of a Willis Reed repeat quickly vanished Friday when Stoudemire missed his first three shots and had another blocked. It contributed to the Knicks’ lethargic start, where they trailed 9-0 and 22-5 on their way to a 113-96 loss. It was as if his teammates were waiting for him to do something dramatic to energize the crowd. But Stoudemire had nothing.

His courage was admirable. We wouldn’t have expected anything less. But Stoudemire has nothing to prove today. As much as Anthony has stolen the headlines and much of the spotlight since arriving from Denver in February, it was Stoudemire who restored pride, passion and excitement in the franchise.

We know he’s a warrior. But he was shell of himself in Game 3, and there’s no use risking further injury if he is “below 50 percent,” as he stated yesterday.

“I don’t want to get out there and further injure my injury,” he said.

Clearly, doing more harm to his back was on his mind when he talked about compensating too much for his current injury and suffering another injury. He said he would “be smart” about his decision to play today, though it will take divine intervention for him to move any better than he did Friday night, when he admitted trying to avoid contact.

It’s a cruel fate that the Knicks season has come to this: playing a first-round series without Chauncey Billups, who missed Games 2 and 3 with a knee injury; Stoudemire, who was hurt in Game 2; Landry Fields, who keeps regressing by the minute; Ronny Turiaf, whose left knee keeps locking up; Jared Jeffries, who seems scared of layups; and Toney Douglas, who is far from the ideal point guard in Billups’ absence.

The hope was to be competitive in this first-round series with the Celtics, and the Knicks did that in Games 1 and 2 in Boston before being blown out in their first home playoff appearance in seven years.

Stoudemire said he played Friday to show courage for his teammates and the fans. He doesn’t have to do that today. The wise choice is for him to sit and hope his teammates can survive without him.